U.S. retailers drop Xbox 360 prices to compete with Wii U

In the weeks leading up to the Wii U's launch in November, major U.S. retailers have dropped the price of a number of Xbox 360 bundles in hopes of selling more units during the busy holiday season. Retailers like GameStop, Best Buy, Amazon, and Wal-Mart have cut $50 from several of the existing Xbox 360 models. The baseline 4GB model remains at $199, though the $299 bundles (which include the 4GB model with Kinect and the 250GB model) are now $249. The upcoming Halo 4 console bundle also received a price drop, and will debut next month at $349 rather than $399. With these recent changes, most Xbox 360 bundles will now be less expensive than the Nintendo Wii U when it launches next month for $299 (or $349 for its 32GB Deluxe Set). These price reductions arrived just as Nintendo announced its own price drop for the original Wii, and should help the Xbox 360 better compete with the new Wii U hardware. At the moment, it's unclear whether Microsoft had a hand in these recent price drops, or whether these new prices are permanent. In previous years, many of the participating retailers have offered temporary holiday discounts by including $50 gift cards with Xbox 360 purchases, and the new price drops could very well be extensions of that same kind of promotion. We've reached out to Microsoft and a number of these retailers for comment, but have yet to hear back as of press time. [Update: Microsoft announced today that the recent $50 price drop is a temporary promotion that will last through the holidays. All bundles are expected to return to their previous prices once the promotion ends.]